Once again I would like to thank DaisyJane for betaing for me, and I would also like to thank everyone who was nice enough to review. Now on with the story...
The yellow dragon's fire knocks John back and slams him into the ground. I require some assistance with defense! Oa says.
John forces himself to concentrate and wills a half circle of green force field into being between him and the deadly energy. "Great. You know Oa if you had told me I could do something like that I would have started off as Voltron!" John says.
You are too new at using the glow to try and over power Sinestro. You're going to have to be more creative. I know you can do it John, The alien voice advises.
The soldier thinks for a moment and comes up with an idea. While keeping his shield up he creates a spinning drill bit in the center then forces it out on an extended arm until it reaches the giant yellow construct and begins to drill through it. The drill nearly makes its way to the alien villain's face before he drops his construct and dodges out of its way.
Seizing the moment, John turns his drill into a giant fist and uses it to deliver a giant right hook to the glowing yellow man. "Thats for playing golf with my head!" the new superhero shouts.
Sinestro quickly recovers and shouts, "You and your primitive puppet will die Oa!" Then he forms what looks like a giant robot gladiator armed with an ax hand and a shield.
"Oh hell," Alan says as he flies out of the way of the deadly downward chop. He then summons a plasma cannon straight out of a video game and begins blasting his giant enemy with it. Sinestro blocks these attacks with his construct's shield, though pieces of it vaporize with each blast. In return the alien swings his weapon arm at his green foe and the ax hand swings out on a giant chain and knocks the hero out of the sky.
Remember you can't overpower him John, you need to be more cleaver, Oa advises.
"Thanks...I'll keep that in mind," he answers as he painfully makes it back to his feet.
Sinestro stomps forward in his giant yellow robot/gladiator/construct, the ax hand raised and ready to deliver the killing blow. John smirks and creates a giant green rug on the ground just as Sinestro steps on it, and as soon as he lifts his other leg the soldier pulls out the rug and watches the giant fake warrior fall backwards and slam onto the ground.
Loony Tunes? Your mind is full of such strange things John, Oa tells him.
"Hey it worked," he answers.
The head of the giant gladiator looks up and opens its mouth, causing a yellow laser beam to jump out and lance towards John's face. At the speed of thought, the young soldier summons a giant mirror in front of his face which reflects the beam of death back at the attacker and cuts the construct in half.
As the giant warrior disappears Sinestro flies at John like a glowing yellow madman, armed with two jagged construct blades and screaming in hate. John calmly points his ring at his attacker and, half a moment later, a giant green bull charges right at the alien murderer, nailing him in the face and causing lunatic to spin drunkenly forward. John catches the dizzy villain as he creates a giant green boxing glove on his right hand.
"You know, I always did want to do this to Commander Shooy," he says before he begins to beat his enemy into painful unconsciousness.
Hold your ring hand over him and I will extract Sinestro's essence. I must warn you though the Commander is already gone, Oa explains.
After a moments hesitation, John does as he's asked and the yellow glow leaves the human's body and turns into a ball of energy in his hand. After this, John quickly returns to the base to retrieve Sinestro's holding device, which he then fills with the alien energy and then buries it at the bottom of a nearby lake. "Now what?" he asks Oa.
It is your choice Mr. Alan. You can simply return me to the base or you can continue our partnership, she tells him. After a second of thought, John takes Oa and her container to his as yet unused apartment. I'm glad you have decided to work with me John.
"I haven't decided anything yet," he explains. "I'm just not going to just hand you back over to them. Now if you excuse me I have to get back to base and prepare for one hell of a debriefing." With that statement, he walks out of the room and shuts the door behind him.
…
Over the last few hours of the night, John makes his way back to base. When he gets there, he passes out right before the cleanup crew arrives. He wakes up a few hours later and spends all of that day being questioned by his superiors. After repeating the same exact story verbatim for what feels like two hundred times, he's given his honorable discharge and ordered not to mention anything that happened that night to anyone.
Deciding he wants a little bit of normal before he goes back home, John stops at his favorite comic book shop. "Hey Kyle!" he shouts stepping in.
The owner of the store, a young half Mexican man with short dark hair and an infectious smile, looks over at him and beams. "Army man! You finally free of duty?" he asks walking over and clapping hands with John.
"Yes, I am no longer a member of the armed forces," John answers.
"How does it feel?" Kyle asks him.
"Uncertain," John admits.
"Still haven't found another job yet?" the comic book man asks.
"Haven't even looked, I was planning to take it easy for the next few days," the ex-soldier answers.
"Well if you get desperate I could always use someone to mop the floors," Kyle tells him, walking back around his counter.
"I'll keep that in mind. Did the new issue of Green Guardsman come out yet?" he asks.
Kyle reaches under the counter, pulls out a green covered comic and hands it to his friend. "I saved you a copy," he answers. John starts reaching for his wallet but Kyle shakes his head. "Consider it a retirement gift."
"Thanks man," John tells him and starts his journey back home.
…
John finally walks back through the door of his apartment and sees Oa on his coffee table, exactly where he left her. Did it go well? Oa asks.
John tosses his new comic next to her, grabs a box of cheese crackers and a beer from his kitchen, then eases down on the couch across from the glowing alien before answering, "It went as well as it was going to. I'm a citizen again," he tells her. "I think its time for you to explain some things to me."
That was our agreement, very well, she answers. As I told you my name is Oa and I am a guardian. I worked as a security officer for the Guardian Security Core. After months of investigation and a brutal battle I caught the criminal Sinestro and prepared to transport him to a prison world. For the journey our minds and life essences were drained from our bodies and held in containment vessels within the ship.
"That sounds stupid," John says after taking a gulp of his beer.
In retrospect I'd have to agree with you, though the purpose was to save energy and help prevent escape, our bodies would have been cloned from DNA samples on the ship with us. Something happened though, what I'm not sure, but our ship however was thrown off course and crashed onto your planet.
"So you want my help to get you back to your people?" John asks.
I'm not concerned about that, Oa answers.
"Why not? I'd sure as hell would want to get back if I was in your position," John says.
Our ship crashed nearly two thousand years ago John. If I was embodied I would have died long ago, and now everyone and possibly everything I know are long dead, she explains.
"I'm sorry," he tells her.
Thank you for your sympathy, but I have had quite a long time to come to grips with this, and sympathy is not what I want, she answers.
"Well what do you want?" John asks.
I want to do my job again, and to do that I need your help, she answers.
"Your job?" he asks.
I upheld justice, fought evil, and saved innocents for most of my active life and with your help I could do that again.
John laughs, "You want to be a superhero?" He holds up the comic he just bought. "You want to go out and fight bad guys with superpowers?" he asks.
Yes I do, as I know you do as well John, Oa tells him.
"What makes you think you know what I want? What makes you think you know anything about me?" John asks, standing up.
I know a great deal about you John. Human scientist spent decades tearing my ship apart, and through all that time I had nothing better to do then reach into their minds and get to know them. I've seen the thoughts of intelligent men and fools, of brave men and cowards, of the young and the old, of the good and the evil. I chose you for a reason John, for I've seen the creativity behind your eyes, I've walked in your dreams. I've looked through your memories, from the night you defended your older sister from a masked intruder, to the first comic book you drew, to your first days in boot camp. Your a good man John Alan, and you have the makings of a hero, Oa explains.
John looks at the glowing green alien for a second before getting up, throwing away his empty bottle and grabbing a replacement from the fridge. "I'm going to get some sleep," he tells her walking to his room and shutting the door behind him.
I guess that could have gone better, Oa thinks to herself.
…
A pool of liquid slime and mud in a swamp near a city far from where John Alan sleeps begins to bubble and soon a very large, white and ghoulish hand reaches out of it. The black fingernails soon scratch at solid ground and then haul a massive death white body onto the land. The giant of a man stands seven feet tall and nearly half that wide, with long arms and huge hands. His hair is white and his eyes are a dead kind of yellow with only their movement and a vague look of confusion showing them to be alive. The creature wears tattered and black shirt, pants, and jacket with moss and mud covering it. He shakily stands and looks about dumbly. Eventually his yellow eyes look down and see his reflection in the very same pool out of which he just hauled himself. The creature tilts his head to side and stares blankly at his own reflection until it finally speaks. "Who am I?" he asks it.
He holds his head in his massive hands and looks through the vast emptiness within it. "I don't remember anything!" he shouts into the empty air. "Not anything!"
In his blind rage he rips up a nearby tree and smashes it into splinters. He throws its remains back into the pool from which he came and howls in pure rage at the cloud covered sky that seems to mock him. Eventually though he stops and just sits down on the ground with his hands on his knees. Then a look of pure joy crosses his face, "No! I remember something! I remember one thing!"
The giant pale creature leaps back to his feet and begins laughing out loud in joy at such a simple thing. "I remember!" he shouts back at the sky as thunder rolls by. "I remember!" he repeats as lightning flashes in the distance and rain begins to pour down on him. "I remember! I was born on a Monday!"
TBC. Reviews are always appreciated.